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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞

𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦

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Delaney politely thanked the barista as he handed her the three coffees and bag of pastries for her to take back to Sam and Dean. She walked out of the coffee shop and made her way back up the block to the motel where they were staying. It sure as hell beat sleeping in the Impala, which didn't necessarily matter to her since she didn't sleep as it was. The nightmares of Will and everything they've been doing as of late was really hitting her.

Approaching the door to their room, Delaney balanced the cup tray in one hand as she fumbled for the room key in her back pocket. She finally retrieved it and slowly opened the door so she wouldn't wake Dean or Sam. It was still only five forty-five in the morning so the boys would still be asleep for another two hours most likely. 

However, she realized she must have been too loud because when she rounded the wall to enter where the beds were, Dean and Sam quickly sat up in surprise. "Morning, sunshines!" She greeted, placing two of the three coffees and the bag of pastries on the nightstand separating the two beds in the room.

Groaning, Dean flopped back down onto his pillow. "What time is it?"

Delaney looked over to the clock on the wall, checking the accurate time. "It's about five forty-five."

"In the morning?" Sam complained, burying his face back into his pillow.

"Where does the day go?" Dean retorted, rolling his eyes and sitting up in bed. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

Delaney shrugged, trying to act nonchalant about the question. She didn't want to worry either of her brothers about her not sleeping. They couldn't exactly do anything to help her nightmares so what was the point of making a big deal out of it? They'd go away eventually like they did when she was younger. "Uh, yeah, I got a few hours."

Dean scoffed and rubbed a hand over his face, erasing the sleep from his eyes. "Liar - because I was up at three, and you were watching old Nickelodeon re-runs."

"What can I say? My inner five year old likes to make an appearance every now and then," Delaney joked, earning a small laugh from Sam.

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?" Dean asked, worry beginning to take over his features.

Delaney chose to ignore his question and take an exaggerated long sip from her coffee. As she lowered her cup, she made eye contact with Dean and he was giving her his tell me or I'll force it out of you look. "Dean.." she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"No, Della, I want an answer," Dean demanded, concerned she wasn't getting any sleep at all. "You still having nightmares about Will?"

Knowing fully well she was going to lose this battle, Delaney walked over to the bed Sam was on and sat down next to him. "Yeah, but it's not just him. It's everything. I didn't realize everything I've seen with hunting would effect me like this. I guess I'm not as used to it all as I think I am."

"Don't let this life get to you, kiddo," Sam said, grabbing his coffee and a cinnamon roll from the bag. "If you bring it home with you, it'll just make you feel horrible."

"So, what? All this - it never keeps either one of you up at night?" Delaney inquired, not believing for a second that what they see and go through during a hunt wouldn't give them at least some nightmares.

Dean and Sam glanced each other before nodding their head in response.

Delaney let out a disbelieving scoff. "Really? Neither one of you are ever afraid? Ever?"

"No, not really," Dean replied, taking a generous sip of his coffee.

Delaney raised an eyebrow before leaning forward and grabbing the knife Dean kept underneath his pillow. She was challenging him to fight her on the fact that he was never afraid. Next to her, Sam was trying not to laugh by pressing his lips together and focusing on his cinnamon roll and coffee.

Dean took the knife from Delaney before she hurt herself with it. "That's not fair. That is precaution."

Delaney simply shook her head and fiddled with her cup. "All right, whatever. I'm too tired to argue with you."

Dean's cellphone suddenly rang, ceasing any conversation between the three siblings. He checked the caller ID and gave Sam some kind of inside look before answering the call. "Hello?"

"Dean, it's Jerry Panowski. You, Sam and your dad helped me out a couple years back."

"Oh, right, yeah! Up in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, the poltergeist thing. It's not back, is it?"

"No, no," Jerry chuckled on the end. "Thank God, no. However, it's something else, and well, I think it could be a lot worse."

"What is it?"

"Can we talk in person?"

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"Thanks for making the trip so quick," Jerry said to the siblings as he lead them through a huge warehouse where all the planes were parked. Some were being fixed up while others were getting refueled so they could be ready for their next trip. "I ought to be doing you guys a favor, not the other way around. Dean, Sam and your dad really helped me out."

"Yeah the boys mentioned it to me. It was a poltergeist?" Delaney asked just for clarification. Even though she wasn't a hunter as long as her brothers, she still knew what a poltergeist was and how horrible they could really be. Watching all those horror movies with Will really paid off.

"Poltergeist? I loved that movie!" One of the random workers exclaimed nearby.

Jerry shot them a warning glance before forcing them back to work. "Damn right it was a poltergeist - practically tore our house apart. Tell you something - if it weren't for your brothers and your dad, I probably would be dead right now." He lead them around a corner as they continued to make their way to wherever Jerry was leading them.

"Your dad said you were off at college. Is that right?" Jerry questioned.

Delaney froze for a second, not believing her dad would actually talk about her to other people. They had such a strained relationship with each other that it boggled her mind to think that he would actually speak about her. "Yeah, I was. I wanted to get out and experience life I guess."

It wasn't a total lie because Delaney really did want to see what the world was like, hence why she went away to school. However, it was also mainly because of her dad. Her and their father, John, couldn't be in the same room without starting an argument over at least something. Going away to school and staying on campus was the best option. Sadly that meant she would be away from her brothers for good portions of the year, but it also got her away from John who she was sick and tired of fighting with 24/7.

"Yeah, he was real proud of you. I could tell," Jerry added. "He talked about you a lot. It made me want to meet his youngest and only daughter."

"He did?" Delaney asked, disbelief evident in her tone. No way they were talking about the same John Winchester.

"Yeah, you bet he did," Jerry responded, sounding proud of her as well for some reason. "Oh, hey, I tried to get ahold of him, but I couldn't. How's he doing, anyway?"

Dean hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out how to swindle this lie. Obviously they couldn't tell Jerry that John was missing. "He's, um, wrapped up in a job right now."

"Well, we're missing the old man. We get your lovely baby sister, though. Even trade I would say," Jerry states before leading them into his office in the back of the warehouse. He motions for the three Winchesters to sit in the three chairs set up in front of the wooden desk. They obliged and watched as Jerry inserted a disc into his computer. "I want you three to listen to this. It sounded like it was up your alley."

Jerry pushed the disc tray back into the tower and hovered his mouse over the play button. "Normally I wouldn't have access to this. It's the cockpit voice recorder for United Britannia Flight 2485. It was one of ours." He hit play, allowing the three siblings listen to the recording.

The recording was slightly distorted making it hard for them to hear what the two pilots were exactly saying. Delaney heard the words mayday perfectly clear though. An alarm was blaring in the background as the plane began to make its fatal descent. The wind outside could be heard as the plane began to pick up its speed towards the ground. The two pilots continued to talk and the recording began to crackle, making it even harder for them to hear what the pilots were saying. The two pilots' voices were cut off by a low moaning that continued to grow louder and louder until the audio recording cut itself off.

"Took off from here, crashed about 200 miles south," Jerry ejected the disc and carefully placed it back into its casing. "Now, they're saying mechanical failure. The cabin depressurized somehow. Nobody knows why. Over one hundred people on board. Only seven got out alive."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look with each other, taking in all the information that Jerry was giving to them. Delaney wished she knew how to read their looks, to her it seemed like they both  had a faint idea of what this was, but she couldn't tell.

"The pilot was one," Jerry continued, leaning back in his chair. "His name is Chuck Lambert. He's a good friend of mine. Chuck is, uh.. Well, he's pretty broken up about it, like it was all his fault"

"You don't think it was," Sam noted.

Jerry shook his head, feeling sure that Chuck wasn't behind this. "No, I don't."

"Jerry, we're gonna need passenger manifests, a list of survivors - " 

"Right, and any way we can take a look at the wreckage?" Dean cut Sam off, causing the latter to glare at him.

"The other stuff is no problem, but the wreckage - the NTSB has it locked down in an evidence warehouse. No way I've got that kind of clearance."

Dean pursed his lips as he nodded. It was obvious he had already formed a way for the three to get in to see that plane. "No problem."

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Delaney leaned against the Impala with Sam as they waited for Dean to come back with their fake IDs. She could feel Sam's gaze on her and she turned to look at him, a concerned expression on his face. Delaney could already sense where this was going to go. "Sam, don't..."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sam asked, completely ignoring Delaney's pleas for him to not start.

Delaney ran a hand through her hair with a sigh. "Sam, I already told you I was okay."

"I don't believe you," Sam responded, crossing his arms across his chest. "Dean said you were up in the middle of the night. Seriously, Delly, what's up?"

"It's no big deal. I think I'm just still upset over Will's death and I feel like it's my fault, I guess," Delaney admitted, fiddling with her fingers. "I know it's not but I feel like he was targeted for a reason. Like Mom was."

Sam frowned and pulled Delaney into his side. "You can't blame yourself for what happened to either of them. No one can."

Delaney's response was cut off when Dean finally exited the ID place. The two younger Winchesters moved apart as they watched Dean approach. "You've been in there forever."

"Seriously, how long does it take to make three fakes?" Sam added, raising an eyebrow as Dean held up the three IDS.

"Can't rush perfection, little brother," Dean replied with a smirk.

Sam's eyes widened when he noticed what kind of IDs Dean got made. "Homeland security? That's illegal, even for us, Dean."

Delaney grabbed her's and made a face at the name she was given. "Yolanda Laurence?"

"I think it's a good name!" Dean defended, walking around the car to the driver's seat. "Anyways, to answer your question, Sammy - it's something new, you know? People haven't seen it a thousand times before." The three Winchesters got into the car, Delaney in the back as usual. "So, what do you got?"

Sam opened his laptop and moved the mouse around for a second to wake the computer up. "Well, there's definitely E.V.P. on the cockpit voice recorder. Listen." He turned his laptop so both of his siblings can see and hit play on the recording he had open. It was slowed down and there was a bunch of static before a bone chilling voice whispered "no survivors". 

"Cause that isn't creepy or anything," Delaney commented.

"No survivors?" Dean asked in confusion. "What's that supposed to even mean? There were seven survivors."

Sam shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, just as confused as Dean. "Got me."

"So, what? Is this like a demonic plane or something?" Delaney asked, looking between her two brothers. "You know, instead of snakes on a plane... it's ghosts on a plane?"

"Well, there is a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships, like phantom travelers. Or, Dean, remember Flight 401?"

"Right - the one that crashed, the airline salvaged its parts, put it in other planes, then the spirit of the pilot and copilot haunted those flights."

Delaney grinned, happy that she actually was on the right track. "I was right?"

"Yeah, maybe we got a similar deal here."

Dean picked up the list of survivors and looked it over. "So, survivors - which one do you want to talk to first?"

"Third on the list - Max Jaffey," Sam replied, pointing to the name.

"Why him?"

"For one, he's from around here. Two, if anyone saw anything weird, he did," Sam explained.

Dean looked over to Sam, furrowing his eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, I spoke to his mother, and she told me where to find him."

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The three Winchesters arrived at Riverfront Psychiatric Hospital. Max must have been so traumatized by the whole thing he needed to be here for a while. While the boys flashed their fake IDs to the nurse and asked for Max, Delaney looked around them. The hospital looked different from how they portrayed mental hospitals on TV and movies. The walls were all painted different bright colors and the flooring was white. The patients were either by themselves and staring at nothing or they were hanging out with each other and laughing.

The nurse, seeming to believe the IDs, lead the three over to Max who was outside in the warm sun. She told them not to be too long before walking back into the hospital. 

Max was confused to see them as Dean explained who they were and why they were here to see him. "I don't understand. I already spoke with Homeland Security."

"Right. Some new information has come up," Dean swiftly lied as Max lead them around the backyard area where multiple patients were sat around enjoying the nice day or playing games set up on the tables outside. "So if you could just answer a couple questions..."

"Just before the plane went down, did you notice anything unusual?" Sam began the questions.

"Like what?" Max countered. He clearly didn't want to answer any more questions than he already had, but the trio needed the answers so they could get down to the bottom of this case. They needed every piece of information they could get.

"Strange lights, weird noses, maybe... voices," Dean listed off.

Max shook his head as they continued to walk around. Well, Max more limped than walked since he had gotten a leg injury from the crash. He had to lean all his weight onto a cane he was provided until his left leg healed. "No, nothing."

The three sat down at an empty table in the middle of the backyard area. "So, Mr. Joffey..."

"Jaffey," Max corrected.

"Jaffey. You checked yourself in here, right? Can I ask why?"

Max took a deep breath, preparing himself to relive what happened. "I was a little stressed. I survived a plane crash."

"Uh-huh and that's what terrified you? That's what you were afraid of?" Dean skeptically questioned, knowing fully well that something else happened.

"I-I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Dean leaned closer to Max, not giving up on his pursuit to get answers out of him. "I think maybe you did see something up there. We need to know what."

"No. No, I was delusional - seeing things."

Dean glanced at his two siblings who were sitting there awkwardly watching this whole thing play out. "He was seeing things."

"It's okay," Sam assured Max, being a lot nicer than Dean was. "Then just tell us what you thought you saw, please."

Max sighed, staring down at the table in front of them. "There was... this... man. Uh, he had these eyes... these, uh... black eyes. I saw him - I thought I saw him..." He froze, clearly becoming distraught as he retold them what happened.

"What, Max? You can tell us. It's okay," Delaney encouraged.

"He opened the emergency exit. But that's impossible, right? I mean, I looked it up. There's something like two tons of pressure on that door."

Dean nodded his head absently as he let Max's information sink in. "This man - did he seem to appear and disappear rapidly? It would looks something like a mirage."

"What are you, nuts?" Max asked with a chuckle. "He was a passenger. He was sitting right in front of me."

Seeing as this was all they would get from Max, the siblings said goodbye to him before walking back over to the Impala.

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Dean pulled up to a house a few minutes away from the hospital. "Here we are - George Phelps, seat 20C."

"Man, I don't care how strong you are," Dean began as he stepped out of the car with Sam and Delaney. "Even yoked up on PCP or something, no way you can open up an emergency door during a flight."

Delaney scoffed and looked up at the house in front of them. "Not if you're human, at least."

"Maybe this guy George was something else - some kind of creature, maybe, in human form."

"Does that look like a creature's lair to you?" Dean retorted, motioning to the family home in front of him. It looked as normal as a house could.

After the boys had bantered back and forth, Delaney eventually rolled her eyes and marched over to the door and rang the doorbell. If they were just going to fight, she might as well lead the way to why they were here in the first place. Once the two boys noticed where Delaney was, they rushed over just as the woman who answered the door was allowing her in.

The three were offered a seat in the living room which they graciously took. Sam noticed a photo of George on the coffee table and inspected it. He looked perfectly normal with bright brown eyes and brown hair. He smiled brightly back at Sam as he turned the photo to George's wife. "So this is your late husband?"

"Yes, that was my George," the woman replied, her tone full of love and adoration. Delaney knew how Mrs. Phelps was feeling. It was the same feeling she was still experiencing over Will's sudden death. Even though her situation was a bit different to Mrs. Phelps, Delaney could still relate and understand how she was feeling.

"And you said he was a... dentist?" Dean asked next.

"Mm-hmm. He was headed to a convention in Denver," Mrs. Phelps responded. "Do you know he was petrified to fly? For him to go like that..." She stopped herself as she pressed her lips together to keep herself from crying in front of the three siblings.

"How long were you married?"

"Thirteen years."

"In all that time," Sam began, leaning his elbows on his knees. "Did you ever notice anything... strange about him, anything out of the ordinary?"

Mrs. Phelps looked between the three for a minute, as she wondered if she should respond to the question as she didn't understand what Sam meant. "Well... Uh, he had acid reflux, if that's what you mean."

After a few more minutes of them talking, Dean announced that they had some more work to do and they should probably head out. Mrs. Phelps lead them out and told them to let her know if they find out what happened on that flight. 

"It goes without saying. It just doesn't make sense," Sam stated, following Delaney and Dean down the front steps of the Phelps' house.

"A middle-aged dentist with an ulcer is not exactly evil personified," Dean agreed, stopping in front of the Impala. "What we need to do is get inside that NTSB warehouse, check out the wreckage."

Delaney looked between the two boys, confused. "How are we going to get in though?"

"By looking the part."

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An hour later, Delaney followed her brothers out of the suit shop they stopped in to pick up professional looking suits. "I feel like a monkey," Delaney complained, pulling at the tight button up she had on. Fixing her suit jacket so it sat better on her body, she huffed. At least the pants were kind of comfortable.

"Yeah? I look like one of the Blue's Brothers" Dean countered, fixing his tie so it wasn't tied as tightly around his neck.

"No, you don't," Sam argued, also fixing his suit. "You look more like a seventh-grader at his first dance."

Delaney giggled at this and instantly slapped her hand over her mouth. Dean sent her a glare, which basically told her to shut up or she'd regret it. She obviously ignored it and continued to laugh at Dean.

"I hate this thing!"

"Hey, you want into that warehouse or not?" Sam asked as he followed Dean and Delaney back to the Impala. 

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Once Delaney, Dean and Sam showed their IDs to the guard at the warehouse, he waved them through into the room the plane was being kept in. The nose of the plane looked as if it were never in a crash, but the body of the plane was completely open and it looked like a skeleton. There were parts and pieces strewn around the room, some being hung up on little stands stationed around.

Dean pulled out a small device with a pair of earphones attached to it. He placed one of the earbuds into his ear. Noticing the odd looks he was getting from Sam and Delaney, he decided to explain it to them. "It's an E.M.F. meter. It reads electromagnetic frequencies."

"Yeah, I know what an E.M.F. meter is, but why does that one look like a busted-up walkman?"

Dean grinned, glad someone noticed his handy work. "It's what I made it out of. Homemade."

Delaney raised an eyebrow as she looked over the meter. It honestly looked like a ten year old put it together. "Yeah, I can see that."

"Don't shit on quality," Dean snapped before turning on his heel as he continued to walk around.

"How can I shit on something that's already kind of shitty?" Delaney asked Sam who laughed in response.

Rushing to catch up to Dean, Sam and Delaney reached him as he stopped in front of the emergency door handle. The lights on his homemade E.M.F. meter blared and flashed red rapidly. "Check out the emergency door handle." 

The handle was bent as if the Hulk had grabbed it and some white powder was coated along where George had grabbed it. Dean leaned forward and touched it, feeling the powder between his thumb and pointer finger. "What is this stuff?"

"One way to find out," Sam scraped some of the powder into a plastic bag he brought and stuffed the bag into his jacket pocket.

The sound of running footsteps caught the siblings' attention. "Dean, what's going on?"

"We've been caught," Dean responded, pushing Delaney in front of him and towards the exit in the corner of the room. They burst out of the room just as the guard and the real Homeland Security ran into the room.

Dean glanced around a corner outside to see the gate that would lead them back to the Impala. "Come on," he whispered, leading Sam and Delaney towards the gate. He began moving faster once the alarms began going off. "We're gonna have to hop the fence."

"What?!" Delaney screamed, not being prepared for something like that.

Dean tossed his suit jacket onto the top of the fence so they wouldn't cut themselves on the wires. "Just jump, Della," he ordered before hopping up and over the fence with Sam.

"So lucky I did cheer in high school," Delaney snapped, rushing towards the gate and perfectly flipping over it after pushing herself up on the gate, landing softly on her feet on the other side.

"Wow, I should have gone to more of your performances," Dean commented, grabbing his jacket back from the top of the fence. "That was awesome."

Delaney dusted herself off and smiled smugly at Dean.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey all! I absolutely live for the relationship between Dean, Sam and Delaney. Ugh I love it so much and I love writing it!

ANYWAYS, I HOPE YOU GUYS ALL ENJOYED THIS. DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT AND VOTE SO I KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS ARE THINKING OF THIS SO FAR! I LOVE HEARING YOUR OPINIONS AND WHAT YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN.

ORIGINALLY POSTED: JANUARY 29TH, 2018

EDITED ON: AUGUST 15TH, 2019